The Campaign For DA

3.05.2015

What an insane snowstorm that turned out to be. I can look out the window forever at that stuff coming down. And I did even after everyone else in the house went to bed.

If one more local TV reporter tells me, "If you don't need to go out, stay inside", I might lose it.

That being said, the live news shots of metroplex traffic this morning show that it is worse than anything over the last two weeks.

Local Government Awards: Offices of the City of Decatur and the Wise County Appraisal District open later this morning. All others are closed.

I owe Alvord ISD and Paradise ISD an apology from last week. I dogged them a little bit for announcing their school closings almost at 8:00 a.m. I didn't realize that they had already delayed opening until 10:00 a.m. so parents actually had plenty of notice instead of being caught off guard at the last second.

Even though it is not going to get above freezing until after noon, this stuff will start melting this morning pretty quickly. Even when the temperature is below freezing, an unobstructed sun will melt it. (I think it has something to do with science.)

I'm a fan of the flowering crape myrtle trees, and I've figured out that they bloom generally around March 10th. I hope this weather doesn't ruin that. Edit: Dang it. I meant Bradford Pears.

There is nothing worse than visiting with a client who is about to agree to a plea bargain that requires prison time even it is the smart and wise thing to do. They are, in a bizarre way, the most intimate of conversations. And I'm devastated afterwards each time.

There was an argument in the Supreme Court yesterday about the meaning of a phrase within the thousands of words in the Obamacare statute. From a legal standpoint, I'll admit to being clueless because it would take me an hour of serious study to understand exactly what's going on.

Pete Delkus was doing a bit on Twitter last night by announcing school closings with the phrase, "I've decided that I will close [name] I.S.D. now". His comedy is not any better than his forecasting.

A radio caller the other day identified himself as a retired forensic hypnotist. I hadn't thought about that in years. DPS used to actually have "experts" that they would use to "hypnotize" witnesses in an attempt to produce repressed memories. I don't think the Texas courts were ever dumb enough to allow such testimony.

Does a postal delivery worker smile if he delivers an actual handwritten envelope that looks like it includes an actual handwritten letter? Ninety nine percent of his deliveries have to be junk mail and bills.

My obligatory shot at Mark Cuban: Forbes annual list of billionaires lists him at #603 with a net worth of $3 billion dollars. Didn't he have a little more than that in the 1990s after Yahoo! buried him in cash? It's been over fifteen years and he's not been able to increase his net worth?

GOP Golden Child Ben Carson presidential aspirations slid off into a ditch after voicing his theory on gays. It's not the gay issue that dooms him, it's the fear of his ability to reason. If he sees x there is no telling what his y conclusion will be.

Jane McGarry now has a full time job at Good Morning Texas. She's an odd bird. Online she is shockingly funny and witty but if you ever hear her interviewed she seems to be boringly normal.

Commercial disguised as a newscast/broadcast: I noticed a few months back that various radio hosts on WBAP, The Ticket, and others would casually throw in Fandango, the movie search engine into a conversation. I heard it at least four times in one week. I haven't heard it since.

Golden Child Hitlary Clinton presidential aspirations slid off into a ditch after the NYT reported her using private email accounts to run official government business. Just kidding, even a report of her having Vince Foster killed or the truth about Web Hubbell being Chelsea's father couldn't derail the Clinton machine.

Hey Barry, Check out Camille Paglia's theory on homosexuality. You have probably never heard of her, but she is one of the first lesbian feminist. She has been disappeared by the left because of her politically incorrect thought.

There is a relationship between temperature and the color of objects on the ground. That is related to the ability of lighter colored objects to reflect light. If it is not reflected it is converted to heat. The Antarctic ice cover is 33% above normal and is reflecting more light than in a normal year. Hence we have global cooling. The same thing happened last year when those idiots got their ship stuck in packed ice while trying to prove that the Antarctic was melting.

How much energy is in the light impacting the earth? Try around 1,400 watts per square meter when the angle of impact is perpendicular. That is a lot of energy.

Enough of the light impacting the snow and not being reflected is enough to raise the temperature to melt it if ambient is just below freezing. That is simple since the temperature of snow and ice is 32 degrees.

One reason the snow melts in the sun while the temperature is below freezing is that the "official" temperature is actually measured in the shade. It is always significantly warmer in the sun than it is in the shade, even when it is cold outside. Here's an article about it, including a picture of a thermometer in the sun showing 80+ degrees when the temp is actually in the 20s. http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/weather/resources/askjack/2006-08-21-shade-temperature_x.htm

Even though it is not going to get above freezing until after noon, this stuff will start melting this morning pretty quickly. Even when the temperature is below freezing, an unobstructed sun will melt it. (I think it has something to do with science.)

There is nothing worse than visiting with a client who is about to agree to a plea bargain that requires prison time even it is the smart and wise thing to do. They are, in a bizarre way, the most intimate of conversations. And I'm devastated afterwards each time.

Gosh I would of thought being a victim or a member of a victim's family would kinda be worse...huh?

I don't think the Texas courts were ever dumb enough to allow such testimony.

Doesn't matter. The real job of the hypnotist was to make sure the witness went along with whatever the state's theory was, so the trial testimony of the hypnotist was never necessary. They were just there to suggest to the witness who the defendant was, what he was wearing, etc.

Well, I feel a sense of relief. Rage hadn't said anything incredibly stupid for some time, so I thought his brain injury healed.

And then he goes and make a idiotic statment...again.

So I'll start with...Rage is an idiot...as usual.

A forensic hypnotist doesn't make suggestions, doesn't "walk" the subject into a preconceived idea, or anything of the sort. Read a book Rage, you'll at least appear much smarter.

Forensic hypnotist were almost never even considered to be witnesses at trials because there was no point. Their job was to attempt to allow the subject to recall their own memory. Anything a hypnotist would say at trial would be hearsay (reciting what they heard the subject say).

So, while to the untrained eye, Rage may come off at semi-intelligent, he is, in fact, an idiot.

On Ben Carson: First, I'm not so sure he de-railed his campaign, though I will admit it is possible. What he did was tell the world, "I'm willing to give you my honest opinion on a controversial topic, regardless of whether it will cost me votes" (and before anyone says, well, he was preaching to his own choir, how was that costing him votes, recognize it isn't the republicans that get a republican elected, or the democrats that get a democrat elected, it is the folks in the middle, and maybe some of those won't go his way because of what he said).

I'm with him on the whole idea that it is a choice, but I'm not sure the prison theory supports him. I know these two dogs who live with a family. One is a pup, the other somewhat older. The pup is constantly trying to put his paws on the neck of the older guy, which is generally considered a sign of domination. He does this until the older dog has had enough and then turns around and bites the younger dog, who goes away and licks his wounds until it is time to start the whole mess all over again. What many would describe as homosexual behavior in prison isn't really that at all, but rather is dominant behavior. Anal rape that takes place in prison isn't consensual by the victim, and in most instances isn't anything more than dominant behavior by the aggressor. Yes, there are individuals who put out the signal that they are up for sexual escapades in prison, and those who respond to the signals, but those folks, in many cases were pretty much "any port in a storm" kind of guys on the outside world anyway.

I don't fault Carson for his position or his willingness to admit it, but he's got some logic problems.

Sorry, Stay Classy, as a former prosecutor, I've used hypnotists for that exact reason--to confirm what I wanted the witness to confirm. I never intended to call the hypnotist. Are you kidding? You think they're there to actually hypnotize someone to discover new facts?

You almost pulled off looking kinda smart until you finished by declaring snow and ice to be 32 degrees. They can and generally are much colder. You have confused thetemperature of snow with the temperature at which Iice and water exist together

11:43,Then you were misusing or attempting to misuse the forensic hypnotist. Which is a common blunder for lawyers, both defense and prosecutors.

Your attempt to use them also showed your intellectual deficiency in the subject matter. I'm actually surprised they guy/girl agreed to testify. Possibly because of the expert witness fees that are offered for such testimony?

Forensic hypnosis is specifically designed to be administered without the use of suggestion, direction or leading question.

So, if the any of this is done during the interview session, then it should be excluded from trial, because it was administered incorrectly.

I owe Alvord ISD and Paradise ISD an apology from last week. I dogged them a little bit for announcing their school closings almost at 8:00 a.m. I didn't realize that they had already delayed opening until 10:00 a.m. so parents actually had plenty of notice instead of being caught off guard at the last second.

That RTG trio is too danged young. As a father of teen girls, I don't want to look at teen girls in swimsuits. Please keep 'em up in the 20s, or at least at an apparent age where I could believe that they were in their 20s.

6:36 You may be familiar but not up to snuff in the area of epigenetics. New theories are exponentially evolving. Most likely you take continuing education classes as required, but not out of interest. You're done with education and just paying the bills. "Self education is the only education." I think Einstein said something to that effect.

The greatest gift we humans have besides love and emotion is curiosity; the desire for knowledge. Necessities of everyday life (sort of a life of indentured servitude/slavery) chokes that gift right out of us.